Chapter 11

Charles

I rounded the table as the board members seemed stunned and took the empty seat on the other side so I could have view of Grace and the rest of the board. Some of them glanced my way, but most of them were frozen in their seats and casting uneasy glances among each other, I couldn't help but feel a mix of satisfaction and irritation. Grace was a beautiful bundle of furry, growling at every half-assed answer they had. The desire I had for her simmered beneath my irritation. They were all in on it. They all knew how badly the company was doing, yet none of them looked contrite.

They were just trying to figure out how to get out of this with their skins still intact. This was the Board Devin had chosen, and it was obvious why. Each man looked like he had never been challenged by anyone. They all looked over to the man sitting at the head of the table.

“Grace,” the man said, trying to soothe her. She whirled on him, eyes narrowed. "I know it is a bit upsetting, but we took steps to preserve the company's bottom line. You really should have talked to the board before bringing someone in…”

I said nothing, flipping through the pages I had taken from another board member, before I felt something. I lifted my gaze to see Grace looking at me. She was trembling. Her expression was pinched tight with anger, but her expression wavered.

She was unsure about what to believe, or if it even made sense.

I took a deep breath.

“Ronald, was it?” I asked. He turned around to look at me. The other turned and looked as if they had all been slapped by my informal mode of address.

“Who are you?” He asked, narrowing his eyes. “What have you said to Grace to make her sell even a piece of Wolfe Medical to you?”

I chuckled. “Sell?”

I casually took another report from another board member and flipped through it, feigning indifference.

Grace cleared his throat. "He’s an investor whose gracious investment is saving the company. 15% equity is---"

“If your father knew about this,” Ronald said, shaking his head. “I can’t imagine what he would say. The company doesn’t need an investor. Not some stranger. If you had concerned, you could have—“

“You were already on the board,” I said. “Didn’t you just say that Wolfe Medical doesn’t need an investor?”

Ronald narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know who you think you are, but Wolfe Medical has been a family-owned company since it began.”

“That you made public?”

He blinked. I smiled.

“I’m not simply some stranger with a lot of money, Ronald.” I flipped another page. “I invest in things that will make me money. Wolfe Medical has the potential to be a very lucrative company, but it’s performance as of late is concerning.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ronald said, shaking his head. “Grace, you really should have just—“

“I, of course, have questions about the company’s direction. Given Alpha Wolfe’s recent involvement, I suspect you all will be the people I need to speak to for my answers. Hence, I am here.”

Their eyes bulged. I could smell how nervous they were at the mention of investment. They hadn't expected an outsider to be involved in their affairs, or that Grace would figure out how bad the company was doing.

“According to this report, the funding amounts seem significantly different from what you have here," I pointed out calmly, maintaining a façade of casual interest. I lifted one of the board member’s set of reports. "Can you explain this discrepancy?"

The funding records were all over the place. None of the figures matched the report that we’d entered with. They didn’t even match up with the two reports that I had taken. The board members seemed to squirm uncomfortably. They looked at each other fearfully, waiting for someone to speak.

The room fell silent, and I could practically hear their minds racing to find a way out of the situation. I knew that someone on the board had the master reports from which all the others were created.

“This line by line is incomplete,” I said sliding the report toward Grace. “And vastly different than this other one.”

“Well, each board member has specific jobs. We’ve separated the report out to facilitate conversations.”

Another, older man cleared his throat. “Perhaps instead of coming in and questioning everything in place, you should attempt to get yourself up to speed, young man.”

I smiled, vicious as I met the man. He reminded me of my uncle and that made the idea of ruining his entire life that much more delightful.

“Of course. I was under the impression that Alpha Wolfe had the master report, but she doesn’t. I suppose one of you do.”

The man flushed.

“What would you need that for?”

“Do you understand the meaning of the word investor?” I asked. “I’m not performing charity, nor wasting my money on a sinking ship. If you don’t have a master report, get one run. If you have it, I expect to see it or the deal is off.”

Grace blanched. I caught her eye and she firmed her lips. As we held out gazes, I watched he fear ease. Anger and determination started to burn in her eyes. She trusted me and that made me want to drag her out of this room and ravish her in the hallway.

“Where is the report?” Grace growled, scanning the room. I flicked my gaze over to Ronald. She worked her jaw and turned to Ronald. “Do you have it?”

“Well, these are all the master reports,” Ronald said. He looked nervous as he spoke. His voice trembled.

I leaned over, ignoring the man’s words and picking up the pages that had been sitting in front of Ronald’s chair. He reached to grab them, but he was too late.

I hummed flipping through the pages before pulling out my phone and starting to look. It was sloppy embezzlement, easily discovered and poorly hidden, but I didn’t know if they were directly connected or just facilitators. If they were directly connected, then we had a little more wiggle room about how to proceed.

“You have a lot of nerve,” one of them said, but he didn’t move. “To come in here and try to threaten us into compliance. Wolfe Medical doesn’t need your investment.”

“These reports say otherwise,” I said. “And I believe Alpha Wolfe is still waiting for her answer.”

Her eye twitched as she turned back to the man. “Classic Medical is never a company we should be doing business with. You know that. So you better give me something more than we had to for the bottom line.”

“Well, Grace,” Ronald said gently. “I know that you don’t know much about…”

I tuned him out or I was going to jump across the table and claw him. She had trusted Devin and he had betrayed her. She had once trusted Ronald and he had betrayed her along with all these other old men who probably had some importance in Mooncrest.

As she continued to argue with Ronald, I couldn’t help but smile and feel a surge of respect for her. She might not know a balance sheet from a cash flow analysis, but she had the backbone to stand her ground and enough sense to know when someone was lying to her.

As the board members struggled to find their words, Grace's voice cut through the nonsense.

“Stop with the bullshit!” She growled. “My father would never sacrifice quality for a few dollars! If Wolfe Medical’s reputation is ruined, there won’t be a bottom line to save.”

I closed the report. I didn’t need to see anything else. After looking up Ronald and the rest of the board, it was obvious that they weren’t just facilitating it, but they were directly benefitting from the embezzlement. Each of them had some company that was on Wolfe Medical’s payroll without any real reason. I opened the Inter-Species Business Registry and took notes on the pages I had, noting that Grace’s copy didn’t have many of these line items or a complete vendor’s list.

I decided to bring up just the one that would piss Grace off the most.

"Why would a condiment company be receiving a multi-million dollar payout from a medical company?" I asked, my voice filled with suspicion.

The whole room went tense.

“A condiment company?” Grace asked.

“The company has a cafeteria—“

“You’ve laid off over half the staff over the past four years. The spending for the cafeteria should have decreased just the same, yet it didn’t. It increased.”

“We’ve had several company events—“

“What condiment company?” Grace asked.

“Sauer’s.”

Grace's eyes widened in recognition. Slowly almost mechanically, she turned to look at Ronald.

He squeaked as a low, furious growl rumbled through her.

“Explain yourself.”